Wavemaster with a Sword
by Calethos Verilain Blacksworth
Summary: CC Corp. has issued an email with a new event! Whoever makes it through a special dungeon gets a special eventmade sword. A player named Theina goes through the trials to reach the powerful Wavemaster's Sword.
1. Event

More or less, I own NOT the Dot.Hack project. I'd have already made thousands off the idea, if not millions, but I could never have pulled it off quite as well as the original owners and producers of the Dot.Hack project. All new characters and situations are mine, but characters such as Tsukasa, Kite, et al, belong to Bandai.  
  
Dot.Hack//WAVEMASTER WITH A SWORD  
  
CVB, 2003-2004  
  
Clicky clicky. Someone's mouse gets put into action. Her headset lays next to her, her controller sitting inside of it. She checks her mail with those two clicks. In it, a single message. CC Corp's only real information in a long, long time. She opened it and read.  
  
-------------------  
  
Sender: CC Corp., Subject: Wavemaster with a Sword Event  
  
Dear all Wavemaster players,  
  
CC Corp. is sponsoring a new event for the Autumn season. The "Wavemaster with a Sword" event will commence on September 21 and end when the event has been completed by a Wavemaster player or when Autumn changes to Winter on December 21, whichever comes first.  
  
The event will be held for all Wavemaster players on Lambda server: Orphen, Herald, Holy Ground. To participate, all you need do is show up at the dungeon's entrance and give the CC Corp. representative your name. You will be given thirty minutes in a special 10 level dungeon to complete the task. Once you have reached the Gott statue, you will recieve the rare event item, "Wavemaster's Sword", a Golden Grunty, and a Silver Grunty.  
  
The conditions are as thus:  
  
Only one player may enter the event, and the player's character MUST be of the Wavemaster class.  
  
Characters MUST complete all 10 levels of the dungeon. There is a Gott statue in every level of the dungeon that will contain helpful items for use only in the dungeon. You do not need to claim these items to move to the next level of the dungeon.  
  
You do NOT have to open every magic portal NOR defeat every monster in the dungeon. However, normal dungeon rules apply. If you do not open the magic portal of the room and defeat the monster(s) within, you cannot proceed.  
  
You may take one other non-Wavemaster player into the dungeon with you, but the extra character will be stripped of all items. This character also will not be attacked until the Wavemaster has been defeated.  
  
Fairy Orbs and their equivelents are prohibited.  
  
The prize, "Wavemaster's Sword" is a special event item that allows the Wavemaster who wins it to use any weapon from any class so long as the Wavemaster keeps this sword in his or her inventory. It does not count if the item is stored at Elf's Haven. However, this sword does take up 5 inventory spaces of 40.  
  
Good luck!  
  
CC Corp.  
  
-------------------  
  
The woman smiled for a moment while she logged into "The World", the only real online game of any value. She put on her headset and grabbed her controller and prepared to enter the contest.  
  
*--**--**--**--**--*  
  
There was a moment of disorientation while the character "Theina" logged in and looked around. Carmina Gadelic certainly was a beautiful place, but she wondered why they never designed it to change from night to day. She stared for a few seconds at the Chaos Gate, then realized what she was doing and moved on.  
  
In one hand, she held a staff. In the other, she held a bag of gold, ready to be spent on items, mostly "Blood" and "Bane" items and healing potions. And she wondered which of her fellows she would call to witness the event. Would it be the intelligent Heavy Axeman, "Logos"? Or perhaps the silver-haired Blademaster, "General Tso". Then again, she could bring along the nimble-footed Twin Blade "Grant".  
  
She stopped for a second. "Monsters won't attack my partner until I'm downed first. But they come in itemless anyway. Well, I could let Grant go ahead of me in the dungeon and tell me what awaits. I could give him a few recovery items so he can heal me while I fight since he can't fight. Besides, he's quick, so he can block monsters while I'm battling. Hopefully there aren't any magic-resistant monsters. I'll be so screwed if there are. Wait... Twin Blade weapons... I can carry everything I'll ever need inside and then just give them to him when we get in." She was planning it all, how to "cheat" the system legally.  
  
While thinking, Theina walked into another Wavemaster, also preparing for the momentous occassion. "Watch it!" the other Wavemaster yelled. Theina bowed deeply several times while voicing her immense apologies. When the other Wavemaster had left Theina stared around. Carmina Gadelica was full of Wavemasters. There were lines at the magic and item shops. She expected every Wavemaster in the game would eventually be there. And she knew that she had gotten the message a little later than everyone else since she'd been away on a business trip.  
  
"Damn," was her quick and simple reply to it all. Theina, dressed in her greens and grays, headed off to the Chaos Gate to warp to one of the other two root towns open to the public. She approached the gate and accessed. Delta Server, she decided. Mac Anu, Son of a Goddess was going to be her targeted destination.  
  
Unfortunately, Mac Anu was also crawling with Wavemasters. She expected Dun Loireag to be the same. She sighed and dropped into line behind the players heading to Elf's Haven.  
  
*--**--**--**--**--*  
  
By the day's end, Theina had gone nowhere, but she had gotten a few newbies to pay a bit higher price for her ordinary higher leveled weapons and armor than the actual shops would pay, plus she got a few elixers and potions she could use in the dungeon. Overall, the day wasn't a complete waste.  
  
The desktop of Theina looked unsightly. It was dressed in the standard orange "ALTIMIT" features. She despised it, but she just didn't feel it necessary to change it to the alternate red or blue versions of the same design. She quickly checked her mail and found nothing new. She opened the new mail feature and typed up a message to her Twin Blade playing friend, Grant, asking for assistance. 


	2. Ground, Floors W A1 V

Grant replied with a whiplash, almost as immediately as he recieved the email from Theina. "Yes!" he replied enthusiastically, and then, "What time and all that rot?"  
  
Theina got back to her desktop the next day and opened her mail program. Her response was, "I'll talk to you about it at school Monday."  
  
*--**--**--**--**--*  
  
Clicky clicky. A woman's mouse ran across the pad with no semblance of hesitance in its movements. On the woman's head was her headset again, and near her opposite hand lay her controller. She clicked to log in to The World, and as soon as she was in, the same Wavemaster-flooded Root Town of Carmina Gadelica opened up to her. She could have sworn their numbers had tripled in a couple short days. There were also several non-Wavemaster classes milling about, but they'd probably gotten caught up by a Wavemaster friend and roped into watching for sheer amusement. The Magic and Items shops were crowded again. But something had changed. There were now three more Magic and Items shops nearby, each with its own long line of Wavemasters-in-waiting. 'I wonder who hasn't shown up,' Theina mused. 'And this is an off-peak hour. God, it'll be worse when peak hours arrive.' She could visit the other two open servers, but knew it would be futile. The same mess would be seen there as well.  
  
She sighed. "Nothing to it but to do it," she wimpered. She fell in line.  
  
*--**--**--**--**--*  
  
Two and a half hours later, she had most of her weapons and armors sold, all of her valuable Gott Statue treasures, every Fairy Orb she owned, and most everything, really, she owned. She kept the bare minimum: three different magical types of staff, each with three types of magic on it, four different armors with different attributes to them, and a generous supply of Bane and Blood scrolls. Several Health Elixers were in her inventory, though not as many as she'd have liked. Only two more days until the planned day. She was going to storm the dungeon and be out before the last second. Three minutes per level, ten levels. Piece of cake she hoped.  
  
Still, the knot in her stomach wouldn't go away.  
  
*--**--**--**--**--*  
  
One hour to go. Grant still hadn't shown up, and she was waiting in line to be admitted into the dungeon. She hated waiting. She knew that patience was a virtue, and that sometimes, impatience a vice. She couldn't help but sighed boredly.  
  
Half an hour to go. Flash Mail after Flash Mail had she sent to Grant, each with the response, "I'll be there in a little bit." She reminded herself how patience was a virtue.  
  
Ten minutes remained until her time. Grant finally warped in. "God!" she yelled. "You're really annoying!"  
  
"Yeah, but I'm also here." He had a smug look. She sighed. He came closer to her. "Time yet?"  
  
"Almost. Gimme your weapons, quick," she whispered. "Make it look like we're trading."  
  
"I know the plan." He activated the trade system and commenced to trade for her near-worthless items with his high-value Twin Blade items. They finished as Theina's turn came.  
  
"Next," called the administrative voice. Theina walked up to the character.  
  
"My name is Theina. This is Grant, the single non-Wavemaster who will accompany me." She waved her hand in Grant's direction.  
  
"What class?" he asked Grant gruffly.  
  
"Twin Blade, sir," Grant replied stiffly.  
  
"Aye. Now we need to perform an inventory check." He passed his hands over Grant. "I'm taking your weapons and armors for the time being, Mister Grant, as well as any items you may have." Grant nodded. He didn't like the idea of being robbed blind, especially before going into a dangerous dungeon, but as it was an Administrator doing it - and allowing his character to stay intact - he felt a sort of relief. "Mister Grant, you are carrying an unauthorized item in your inventory."  
  
"Is it the 'Devil's Armor?'" he asked. "I thought the girl who gave it to me looked a little odd. I mean, she was, well, a cat or something," he faked. He knew what it was.  
  
"No. It's not. That, high-level as it is, is not the hacked item."  
  
"Hacked item?" Grant let into the air. "Hacked item? Are you telling me I have some nasty virus-ridden item in my inventory, that my character date could be infected with this coma thing!?"  
  
"Rumors, Mister Grant, mere rumors. And, no, your character data is intact. No, you appear to be carrying a hacked piece of ring armor, specifically designed to raise every stat a character can have."  
  
"Hey, hey. Now, you must not have been here when I won this. It's called the 'Clown's Charade.' Of course it raises every stat I have. It's a legal item. I won it in an event just like this. I sold my ass off to get that item."  
  
"The 'Clown's Charade' was won by a player named Deimos."  
  
"Yeah, and I won it at an auction. Like I said, I sold my ass off. Every piece of armor, every cent I had in this game, I gave to Deimos. Now I own it."  
  
"It's still a hacked item."  
  
"Fine. Keep it then. Jeeze. And another thing..."  
  
'These two are holding up the line,' the Administrator thought. "Get a move on. We'll see about your hacked item later. And meanwhile, we'll talk to this Deimos character to see if this is true." He waved the pair in.  
  
He didn't like that Twin Blade, Grant. Just a gut feeling he had, but he didn't like him.  
  
*--**--**--**--**--*  
  
Inside the dungeon, the timer started. Thirty minutes counted down. Theina quickly unloaded Grant's Twin Blade equipment onto him. "Let's get a move on," she said. Grant barely had put on his armor and weapons before Theina had dosed herself with an "Ap Do" spell and made it through the first door. Grant had been pulled into the room to her.  
  
"This may be a problem," he said as he materialized next to her. She didn't say anything, merely pointed toward the portal that was opening. Grant nodded and ran to it. Theina cast an "Ap Do" for her fellow. Grant made short work of the first two enemies. They dropped a pair of identical blue chests. "No time," Grant said as he rushed to the next door. He passed through it. Theina was pulled along with him.  
  
"I see what you mean," she said as she materialized with him. "This isn't normal."  
  
"I can't scout, then," he said. "Oh well." He lunged at the next portal. Each monster had a physical tolerance to it.  
  
Theina cast her first attack, "Juk Kruz". Quick and effective for the single occupant of the portal. "I expect that the dungeon levels will get progressively harder."  
  
"Sho' dat," came Grant.  
  
"Eh?"  
  
"Nothing. Let's go!" And Grant was off again, robes flapping behind him. Theina ran behind.  
  
*--**--**--**--**--*  
  
They came to the stairs. Two minutes had passed on the clock and she had not encountered to room of the Gott Statue. She headed down regardless. Grant followed.  
  
The bottom of the stairs yielded a new sight to the dungeon. Instead of the stones that had paved the floor on the higher floor, this one was the inside of a monster's belly. She took no time to notice. She dashed ahead, Grant on her heels.  
  
The first room was of no consequence. A single yellow treasure box appeared in the middle of the floor. She went to it and looked around. There were doors to all four directions. She'd emerged from the East. "No better way to find out than to go, eh?" she asked. Grant nodded. She ran North.  
  
The room looked normal. Two portals stared at her. One was opening. Grant leapt forward. A solitary small creature burst forth. She cursed. "Damn mimicing creations," she said. She threw a "Rue Rom" spell at it, and then a second, before it confused her. Grant got in the box's way and took shots at it. The mimicry was destroyed and a Restorative was thrown on her. "Thanks," she yelled.  
  
"You're welcome." Grant saluted smiling and headed to the second portal. Theina moved closer, close enough to activate it.She and Grant put up a good fight and headed West to the next door.  
  
*--**--**--**--**--*  
  
Floor two yielded no Gott Statue either. Still, Theina was not intimidated. In fact, she was glad she was progressing so quickly. Only another minute and a half had gone by. She stopped Grant and cast "Ap Do" once more on each of them, and then gave Grant a few physical stat-raising Bloods, and herself a few magical stat-raising Bloods. They progressed.  
  
*--**--**--**--**--*  
  
The first room after the stairs they entered had a single portal with three creatures inside. Each had a specific elemental weakness, none of which were on the same staff she carried. She quickly switched her weapon to a staff the would be able to dispatch two of three of them by their elemental weaknesses. She put on an armor that would cover the third. She cast her spells. "Vak Rom" and "Rai Don" were cast, followed by "MeAni Kruz". Grant finished the three with a single "Tiger Claws" attack that struck the remainders of their lives. They moved West.  
  
Neither said anything as they progressed. They knew what they were there for. They knew how to get it.  
  
They came to the Gott Statue. "A moment's respite," Theina declared. She healed her magically-inflicted wounds with a "Pha Repth" and took an extra second to give herself a "Mage's Soul". Then, she pressed the Gott Statue treasure box and reveled its contents: A Mage's Soul, another, and a Health Elixer. They exited the room.  
  
*--**--**--**--**--*  
  
Another Wavemaster was loosed into the dungeon. This one was a few levels higher than Theina, but Theina had a head-start. She knew that more players had been allowed entrance. She had to move on. Grant was continuing. This was no problem so far. They reached the stairs the the floor after passing through four more portals.  
  
"Ready?" Grant asked.  
  
Theina replied a hurried "Yes!" They descended. 


	3. Floors E1 M A2, Distrust

Grant stood back a moment to judge the creature. He turned toward Theina and said, "Well, you've got my strategy guide, but I don't think this thing's in it."  
  
"You distract it while I check," Theina said. Her character had stopped moving.  
  
Grant stepped in front of the creature. I looked menacingly at Grant, then at Theina. It started moving toward Theina, stepping over Grant without hesitation. "Um, Theina..."  
  
"I see it," she said. The woman playing Theina flipped through the bestiary of the strategy guide and found a similar creature, but nothing that looked exactly like this.  
  
"Aw, man. 'Mumyn Lei!'" No effect. "'Suvi Lei!'" No effect. "'Dek Do!'" This time, the creature slowed. Not enough to not be a threat, but enough to where Theina could outrun it.  
  
"How'd you cast those three spells with what you've got? I looked at your items. Only 'Dek Do' comes on any of your items."  
  
"The 'Clown's Charade' is a nifty item. So nifty, I had to copy it and mask it as another item, one that I gave to you to give to me."  
  
"But that's cheating!"  
  
"Yeah? I'll be the kettle if you're the pot," he shot back.  
  
She winced behind her headset. "That's cold, Grant."  
  
"Yeah, well just think of that next time ya try to call me on it again. In fact, I'll even give ya a copy once we're done with this monster."  
  
"'Dek Juka!' 'Juk Kruz!'" She cast as quickly as possible. Her attack was more effective than she could have hoped for. It put a stop to the monster's motion. She followed up with a second "Juk Kruz", which only started the beast up again, and this time seemed to heal it just as much as the previous had damaged it.  
  
"Is this a beta-test monster?" Grant fell into step with "Twin Dragons", and then he followed by a "Vak Don". The first hit and hurt, the second healed.  
  
"Well, if that doesn't just beat all? He's got more HP in him than damage I could do with the other for elements in succsession." Theina decided to run. Grant was behind her. For the moment, battle mode went off.  
  
Grant shoved his hands at her. "Here. The 'Clown's Charade' ought to assist. It's disguised as a simple piece of hand armor, but it'll respond to whatever spells you cast verbally."  
  
"No. I'm not going that far. I'd rather not be in the competition than use that cheat."  
  
"It's not a cheat," Grant lied, "It's been a part of the armor system since almost the beginning, but CC. went ahead and created new armors and forgot about it. I just revived the code, with the help of a friend. It's just a lost part of the system, Theina. It's perfectly legal to use."  
  
Battle mode switched back on before Grant could convince Theina to take the armor. "'Rue Rom!'" she called, and then, "'Gan Zot!'", "'Ani Don!'", and then, "'Rai Kruz!'" before stopping.  
  
"Damn it, Theina, you wasted all your elements! How're we supposed to beat this thing now?"  
  
Theina shrugged. "Well, let's try something else. 'Juk Kruz!'" The magic hit, the monster swayed, and, after an infinity within a second, damage registered. "'Vak Rom!'" she called out, and the monster was damaged again.  
  
"I see," Grant said, and followed her lead with a "'Rue Rom!'" of his own. They finished off the creature back at Wood.  
  
"Let's go," Theina yelled. "We wasted two and a half minutes here!" Grant followed East.  
  
*--**--**--**--**--*  
  
It had appeared to be a Gott Statue, but it was really a pair of monsters. One was a treasure chest mimic, the other was a round-shaped flying creature with a ring of light encircling it. The quarters were extremely tight. Still, Grant managed to subdue the larger creature with "'Orchid Dance!'" while Theina cast "'Vak Rom!'" until the box was defeated. They flew out of the Southern door, the one they'd come in. Neither took the time to notice the treasure chest that had appeared with three Artisan's Souls.  
  
*--**--**--**--**--*  
  
The next floor was completely still. It seemed a black void with white doors at the ends of the rooms. The portals on the fifth floor yielded not monsters but treasure chests that held nearly useless items. Low-level scrolls and armors - each suitable for use by a Wavemaster - which she would sell or trade later.  
  
*--**--**--**--**--*  
  
The sixth floor yielded nothing but a near endless storm of monsters, each of which took relatively less time to defeat than before, only because they knew how now. Fiften minutes had gone by. Theina was about to waste another when she got to the stairs that lead to the seventh floor.  
  
"Grant, are you a hacker?"  
  
"Me? A hacker? If I am, I'm the worst one of the bunch. I don't have an obscenely edited character, and these monsters can hit and kill my character. I mean, I use the 'Clown's Charade' but I didn't make it. I just dug it up from the game's base code."  
  
"You're not that good at programming."  
  
"Yeah, yeah. So what? If I stumbled across it, that doesn't make it not there just because I'm an amatuer."  
  
"It's still cheating, Umori!" Theina's voice called across the connection.  
  
The character Grant stood stock still for a moment. Then his slow reply came. "So what?"  
  
"God. You suck. I'll keep going by myself."  
  
"You're a cheater too now. If you shrug me off now, I'll go back to the field and tell that Administrator everything that happened in here."  
  
"So?"  
  
"You could be kicked out of 'The World' permenantly if they hear that you convinced someone to fight with you in this dungeon."  
  
The player took off her headset. She stared closely at her monitor at the image of Grant standing in front of her.  
  
"I can hear the other students now. 'Cheater, cheater'. You know they play too. Almost everyone nowadays at the University does. I even hear professors brag about it to their students when they're not in class. You'll be branded a cheater in and out of the game. Nobody will trust you. Your professors will have to go through every piece of homework you hand in just to see that you're cheating."  
  
"Bite me," she whispered before she put her headset back on. "Fine. Let's go."  
  
"One Sprite Ocarina to the surface then." Grant raised his polygonal hands.  
  
"No. Down," she said defeatedly. And so down they went.  
  
Twelve minutes left. 


	4. Floors S T E2 R, Betrayal

Theina stood with eleven minutes left, staring at a door, an actual door, and a large keyhole on its face. "This is weird," she said flatly. "I've never seen a door before."  
  
"You have the strategy guide," Grant said. "But I don't remember any doors either. Hey, let's look for a key, huh?"  
  
"Yeah." And around the room they went, looking for an item, any item, to use as a key. They broke every vase, skeleton, crate, everything they could find in search of something that resembled a key. There was nothing. Grant was perplexed. "No key?" Theina asked. Grant shook his head. Nine minutes.  
  
Theina almost gave up, but walked to the door. She held her staff to the keyhole and tried a simple spell. "Dek Juka." Nothing happened. "Juk Kruz." The spell was cast and the monster blocking their path came alive. Grant quickly lunged for the attack, hitting it and destroying it easily. They continued.  
  
----------  
  
Three Artisan's Souls and a Healing Elixer later, they made it to the next floor. "It's too easy," Grant said. "Something's not right."  
  
"What are you talking about? We've only got seven minutes left and two more levels to go through!" Theina practically screamed. As her player sat, she was nearly out of breath from the excitement, panting and sweating. Her hands were losing their grip on the controller. She'd come to terms with Grant's sudden lack of honesty when it came to the game, but that didn't mean she trusted him. And that'll be less if we waste time here. Come on!" If she could have, she'd have grabbed Grant's wrist and dragged him along. Grant followed nonetheless.  
  
The next room was silent. There were no sounds. The music had abruptly been shut off. Theina looked at the timer. "The numbers, they're crapping out on me!" she said loudly. Grant noticed as well. "What's going on?"  
  
"I don't know."  
  
A portal appeared to them, in the middle of the room. A large red staff fell out of it. Not a treasure chest, nor a monster, but a staff. It clattered to the floor noisily in this noiseless environment. Theina reached to pick it up but noticed the open door. She picked it up anyway and added it to her inventory. She was near to maxing out her item list, coming to thirty-eight of forty. The music resumed again and the clock resumed it measure. Neither player commented, but they noticed. Neither liked what seemed obvious.  
  
----------  
  
Five minutes remained with they got to the next set of stairs. Neither said a word to each other up to this point since the last. Neither would start again just yet. They went down.  
  
Theina came to the floor first. She saw a horde of monsters, all easily dispatched, but obviously intended to take time in doing so. She cast the fire spell, "Vak Rom!" and the water, "Rue Rom!" this would take too much of her precious time! "Grant!"  
  
"Coming," he said daintily. He pushed his attack hard, casting spells when he was not dealing damage physically to some misfortunate pixels.  
  
After two long minutes, the battle was won. They pressed on.  
  
They found several treasure chests on their way to the next stairs, intended to distract them, make them waste their time. While Theina moved ahead, Grant dug into the chests. He said they'd divy up what was found when she had the sword later.  
  
----------  
  
They came to the final set of stairs. They descended together.  
  
The last floor of the dungeon wasn't a floor at all. It was a tropical paradise. "A lot of work went into this," Theina exclaimed in wonder as she looked around. She was awed. It was a single large room. There were no doors to be had on the map, no treasure chests. There were a tangle of weeds and trees and green things all over. "There's nothing here!" Theina shouted exasperated.  
  
"Theina, you don't think they're going to try to use this kind of interface, do ya, when they do their new upgrades? I mean, no portals, no doors, no treasure chests? Just use whatever you find and monsters and such find you?"  
  
"I don't know," she said. "But I know that there's nothing here that shows up. We need to start looking. There's only a minute and a half left."  
  
"Ah huh." Theina ran to the nearest bush and found a small, pathetic monster under it. She attacked first and destroyed it. Grant watched. Theina moved to the nearest group of trees and found an opened treasure chest and a character lying dead beside it. "Oh, great, there's something here that'll probably knock out my time and me while it's doing it, before I get the sword!"  
  
"Probably," said Grant as he surveyed the body. They ran again, Theina in the lead.  
  
Grant said while Theina was still looking around, "Wanna hear more about the Clown's Charade?"  
  
"Sure, why not?" She replied half-heartedly and absentmindedly.  
  
"Well, it comes from the base code of the game, right?" Theina nodded and looked behind another set of trees. She dispatched another monster. A body identical to the one near the chest lay on the ground. Fifty-four seconds. "Since it came from the original code, it's an original weapon, or armor. Or item or something, I haven't figured that out. I've just adapted it to my needs and named it the Clown's Charade."  
  
"Who taught you how to do that?"  
  
"A guy I know at the University. Anyway, I threw it into a useless Twin Blade weapon I had in Elf's Haven, and it gave me so much power. It was like having you raised from level 1 to level 1 million in one second. Theina, this thing is so cool!"  
  
"Yeah? It's also SO ILLEGAL!"  
  
"Yeah, details. Anyway, I talked to my friend at the University, and he said that I could sell a friend of his the code for it. His friend's also a Wavemaster, like you. He's also in this event." Forty seconds. Theina pressed on. Grant trudged behind, still talking. "But he doesn't just want the code, Theina. He wants the sword. But I can't give it to him."  
  
"I'm not going to hand it over if I find in. Speaking of which, help me out here!" she demanded.  
  
"I'm not saying to hand it over, Theina. I'm saying you never had it to begin with."  
  
"What?"  
  
Grant attacked with a "Dek Do!" and then a "Rai Don!" Theina was taken aback. Her character lost almost half of its life.  
  
"What the hell?!?" Theina ducked behind a tree.  
  
"Come on, Theina. The Clown's Charade isn't just power, it's profit too." "But not without the Wavemaster's Sword. See, if you are killed and leave, nowhere does it say I have to leave too. In fact, the sword is probably somewhere near the entrance."  
  
"Screw you, Grant! Cheater!"  
  
"Kettle!"  
  
Theina bit off curses. Fifteen seconds left. She ran.  
  
Grant followed, casting spell after spell, missing her just barely. He caught up with her and struck her with his twin blades. She lost another couple hundred life points. She kept running, always searching for the hidden treasure.  
  
She found it, the hidden Gott statue, the hidden treasure chest. She thrust herself at it and into Grant's waiting blades. He had been just faster than her. She had already given the command to open the chest.  
  
"Four. Three. Two." Grant smiled and pulled out the treasure. "One."  
  
Something happened. Grant was frozen midway from coming up with the sword. Theina tried to move, tried to cast a spell, anything, but found that she couldn't.  
  
The next thing she knew, her screen was flashing the words, "System Error. Please try again later." The player's mouth hung open. She couldn't speak. She instead of a startled, "Ah!" at the screen, then huffed. She pulled at her controller, yanked hard. The computer tower came around and the cord pulled out of it. She screamed and threw her controller across the room. The silverish controller hit the wall with a dull thud, then hit the padded carpet floow. She screamed again. "YOU DIRTY BASTARD!" she yelled out. She screamed every obscenity she could think of. 


	5. End

-------------------  
  
Sender: Theina, Subject: Cheating Player and System Error Time: 01:23:41  
  
CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE HEADER  
  
Dear CC Corp,  
  
In the event, "Wavemaster with a Sword", the partner I entered the event with turned out to be a conniving, backstabbing player-killer. What's more, he also hacked items and disguised them as regular items. He has told me about the item, "Clown's Charade", and even offered it to me. I have repeatedly declined the offer.  
  
What troubles me isn't this player, named "Marshall Grant", or "Grant" to those of us who know him. I know him from college. No. What troubles me is that while I was about to take the sword from the last level of your dungeon, I had my hand around it's hilt. I recieved a "System Error" message at that point. I had to reset my computer to get it working again, and you can bet that "ALTIMIT Check Disc" didn't have a bugger of a time trying to fix a problem that my computer never had. And then when I get on again, the BBS is flooded with messages about the entire game's crashing.  
  
I know I only had seconds left, but I would have had that sword. In fact, with 3 seconds left I had my hand at the hilt of the sword, ready to claim it. I want to know if I get the prize, or if I can run through it again to try to get it again, or what's going on.  
  
Thank you,  
Theina  
  
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Sender: CC Corp., Subject: Wavemaster with a Sword Event Time: 01:25:00  
  
Dear all Wavemaster players,  
  
We at CC Corp. are immensely saddened by the fact that the servers have been brought down by hacker attacks, and are even more saddened that we have to announce a cancelation to the event called "Wavemaster with a Sword". No player has been nor will be announced the winner of this event, though none have taken the event item, "Wavemaster's Sword". There will be a new Wavemaster-only event to take its place soon, with a prize equal to that of the "Wavemaster's Sword". Until then, have fun and continue playing.  
  
CC Corp.  
  
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Sender: CC Corp., Subject: RE: Cheating Player and System Error Time: 01:30:00  
  
Dear Player Theina,  
  
We will investigate your claims against the player named "Marshall Grant" at our earliest convenience. We will not condone any violence you may plan against the person who plays this character, and any penalties or fines you may incur are your responsibility alone.  
  
Concerning the "Wavemaster's Sword", please read the latest email sent to all Wavemaster players, subject "Wavemaster with a Sword Event" for further details.  
  
CC Corp.  
  
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Theina glared at the computer monitor. She took a moment, then sighed and shut down the computer. She doubted she'd ever play again. 


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